by David Jones, USA TODAY Sports

by David Jones, USA TODAY Sports

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The day before, Mississippi's Marshall Henderson joked that since his Rebel team was in the SEC Tournament championship game it might as well go ahead and win it.

Media surrounding him chuckled.

No ones's laughing now.

Henderson, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, pumped in 18 second half points to lead the Rebels to a comeback win against regular season Florida, 66-63 on Sunday.

Erik Murphy's basket cut it to 63-61 with 1:08 left but a goal tending call by Patric Young gave Ole Miss a four-point lead with 43.7 to go. Mike Rosario made it a two-point game on a drive and the Gators got the ball back for one final chance.

Murphy missed a shot in the lane and Murphy Holloway, the game's leading scorer with 23 points, hit one of two foul shots with 8.6 to go to, making it 66-63.

Florida's Scottie Wilbekin was fouled at 4.2 second. He missed both, the second knocked back to Kenny Boynton - who just missed a three that would have tied it at the buzzer.

In the first 20 minutes, it looked like a game regular season champion Florida might run away with.

But Ole Miss opened the second half with a 26-8 run to wash away a 12-point halftime deficit thanks mostly to the play of Henderson and Holloway.

Henderson, held to just three points on 1 of 6 shooting in the opening half but finished with 21, scored 12 in the first 10 minutes of the second stanza - including three free throws and a jumper during a 7-0 stretch that put the Rebels ahead for the first time, 52-46, with 11:14 to play.

Florida regained the lead briefly at 53-52 on a Murphy 3-pointer at 8:03 _ the first field goal of the second half

by any Gator player other than Mike Rosario. Rosario, who finished with 18, had 11 points in the first 11-plus minutes of the second 20 minutes.

But Henderson wasn't done. After a bucket inside by Nick Williams, he had a bucket to push the lead back to three then on a tip-back hit a 3-pointer and the Rebels' lead was back out to 59-53 with less than seven minutes to play.

Rather than folk, Ole Miss answered every Florida rally.

The first half went about as well as Florida could have hoped. The Gators held Henderson to just three points on 1 of 6 shooting with Wilbekin and Boynton handled the bulk of the defensive chores.

The Gators went up 18-6 at 11:10 after Michael Frazier hit three straight shots behind the arc. Ole Miss cut it back to 21-16 and the Rebels stayed close. Boynton, however, followed his 16-point second half in Saturday's semifinal win with 11 in the opening half against Ole Miss - scoring five straight as UF pushed the margin to 37-24.

Florida led 38-26 at halftime but Holloway scored 12 points in the opening 20 minutes on drives in the paint to keep Ole Miss within range.

Boynton was shaken up with he hit the floor hard on a layup attempt early in the second half and scored just three more points to finish with 13.